Each year millions of dollars are spent on rechargeable batteries for use in portable electronics equipment. Due to their low life-cycle costs, rechargeable batteries are the power source of choice for numerous equipment applications, both civilian and military. There is currently no convenient and cost-effective way for recharging such batteries during remote military tactical maneuvers because currently available battery chargers are not generally portable. Currently available battery chargers also require logistical support such as a generator, military vehicle, or other equipment that would usually be available at a typical military installation, but would not be available during tactical field operations in a remote, dangerous and hostile location. Because of the unavailability of battery charging equipment in remote, dangerous, and hostile locations, our military forces typically do not take full advantage of the battery energy that would be available from a recharged battery. This practice results in the waste of millions of dollars in battery life or energy every year, and aids in the degradation of rechargeable batteries.
Not only does the military user refrain from recharging the battery because of field conditions, the troops tend to carry multiple spare batteries to ensure that their communications and other equipment are constantly available. Although redundant spare batteries by themselves are not excessively heavy, carrying redundant spare batteries on field maneuvers along with other required equipment can create a difficult weight problem for the individual soldier in the field with a fully loaded back-pack. In those cases, the extra weight could make the soldier more susceptible to fatigue and have a detrimental impact on his survivability in remote, dangerous, and hostile locations. Another undesirable result from carrying redundant spare batteries is that the soldier may choose to discard other equipment from the fully-loaded backpack to make room for redundant spare batteries, and depending upon what equipment is left behind, e.g. extra ammunition or a signaling flare, such an omission might have a disastrous impact on the mission, and more importantly, troop survivability.
Similarly, the non-military battery user can often be in remote, dangerous, and hostile locations where the ability to charge a rechargeable battery could increase both comfort and survivability. For example, a recreational camper or boater might be lost or stranded with inoperable battery-operated communications equipment suffering from a low state of charge due to the absence of a portable battery charger for a remote location.
Thus there has been a long-felt need for a portable battery charger that will allow the soldier or recreational camper to have portable battery recharging capacity in remote, dangerous, and hostile locations that alleviates the shortcomings, limitations, and disadvantages of currently available battery charging techniques.